Wikis for supporting distributed collaborative writing
Wiki is one of software tool to create online workspace that allows members to edit pages, read and share resources without complicated technology. People using wiki for two reasons; one is used as “scratchpad” and the other is used for corporate intranet or massive documentation project.
The technology of wiki starts from the mid-1990s and wiki means “quick” in Hawaiian. Wikis can be different depend on programming languages, server platform and additional programs. So the software installed on a Web server should in harmony with wiki package you selected. Though different wikis need different software, wikis still share many general features such as easy to create links to old or new pages, preliminary security controls, revision control and search functionality. Wiki also should ensure that relevant navigation structure are suitable for all of the users, no matter authors, editors or readers. Wikis helped distributed information sharing and exchange shared server space which faster and decreased cost compared to traditional ways of exchanging information. In addition, al team members can have writing and editing privileges, so it eased of use from any location and any time. What’s more, the technology simplifies wiki which encourage members to work more effectively and attracting anybody who like to add or edit content. Last not the least, wikis provide a social space for team members who work remotely.
Regardless of above merits of wikis, wikis still have some disadvantage. To begin with, wikis require the users to learn wiki syntax because formatting of wikis is hard. Secondly, the collaborative environment of wikis may make users feel uncomfortable. Moreover, wikis is a space that any people can show their own opinions, so when writers holding strongly opposing views, the pages will become disorderly. Furthermore, the basic design is out of fashion and the navigation systems are not applied to wiki pages. Fifth, the resources are intensive due to consuming storage spaces and overload an underpowered server. The last is individual can’t take advantage of many features of wikis.
The design of wikis follows the gold standard in technical communication which was intuitive design. Wiki keep pace with the growth of the content and as an existing internal website, don’t customize the default template with site-wide navigation menus. Wiki developing guidelines should best serve the needs of the group, and ethnographic fieldwork and internet surveys are methods for examining wiki design.
All in all, wikis are useful online tool that can help work groups collaborate with each other more easily and frequently cross the lines between author and reader.
College life in US and China Many people said that the best time in their life was the four years of their college lives because they got to know the specific field better. They interested in and fell in love with someone at their best age. However, college life is different from different country due to different cultures. When I came to America as a transfer student, I had already spent two years in college in China. So I experienced both the cultures and I found that students in American college have totally different lives to the students in universities of China. There are several differences between US and China college life. Firstly, choosing classes was an important step for American students because they should have to arrange their classes reasonably such as choosing some difficult courses and some easy courses at the same time. If they select all difficult classes in one semester, they will have too much pressure and may fail some courses. So, people choose classes with advisor’s help and suggestions. According to professor March (2010), “elective system provide more freedom to students and make students studied effectively”(p 22). However, Chinese students don’t have to worry about choosing classes because they have fixed classes which are already arranged by the school. It means that Chinese students should take fixed courses at a time and they don’t have right to choose classes. What’s more, American students not only have right to choose classes, but also have more learning styles to choose. Some Americans like to study alone in a closed small room which they can reserve at the library. On the contrary, some people like to study as a group and library also provides them with a big table and blackboard. Especially, Americans like to study with a tutor and the tutor will teach them every aspect of college life. They focus is not only on academics, but also some guidelines on how to live a better college life. Vogel (2007) states that, “tutoring participation contributed to a general feeling of efficacy and to a great use of learning strategies and skills” (p 485). Compared to learning styles in US, Chinese students prefer to study alone and when they need to do a project or have some difficult problem, they like to set up a discussion group. Most American students like to “study hard, play hard,” which means when they study, they pay attention to studies; when they play, they put all of energy to have fun. In their leisure time, they will have a part time job to prove that they are grown up and independent. Students in America like to get involved in the society, I agree with Deresiewicz (2010), “From the time you started high school and maybe even junior high, your whole goal was to get into the best college you could, and so now you naturally think about your life in terms of "getting into" whatever's next” (p 10) However, most Chinese students don’t have jobs until they graduate from university. They like to spend their time on their hobbies such as playing music, dancing and reading. They still act as an active student by doing things that is appealing to teachers and parents. Apparently, there are a lot of differences between college life in US and college life in China. The different college lives are dependent on different students with different culture background. References Parel, D. (2010). Amherst student. New York: New York Public Library. Vogel, G. (2007). Peer Tutoring for College Students With Learning Disabilities: Perceptions of Tutors and Tutees. Journal Of Learning Disabilities, 40(6), 485. Deresiewicz, W. (2010). What Are You Going to Do With That?. Chronicle Of Higher Education, 57(7), B10.
Tolerating Intolerance This paragraph is about a teacher tolerated a student’s narrow and limited view on racial discrimination and made himself realized his wrong through let him write his own opinion, and then discussed it with the other class. The teacher felt pleased that she helped students understand the issue better by a moderate and reason way.
Many teachers may not have this patience to teach students like this way, and they like to correct student’s view in a serious way and not listen to student’s opinion. Most students would not put forward some extreme ideas in the classroom which will decrease the funny of class and limited the minds of students. For example, when I was in elementary school, teacher like to ask us what we want to do in future? Students answered: “scientist, doctor, musician, businessman and so on” In fact, when people at elementary school, they know nothing about these specific job of future careers. They replied with these answer is because they know these answer can please with teachers. If one student reply with “I don’t want get a job” which was truth, but it would be laughed at by other students. So most of answers in classroom seems lack of authenticity and made people felt boring.
We hope more teachers can encourage students to say something true and have ability to tolerating intolerance which can make students grow and make a progress dramatically and make the classroom became vivid and interesting. The teacher also can felt a sense of achievement through these true exchanges.
Summary of Mr. Language person takes some of your questions
The whole article illustrated the humor of language from different aspects by conversations between questioner and Mr. Language. It was talked about the humor works through spelling, grammar rules and unlikely words or ideas together for a humorous effect. Mr. Language used some spelling mistakes to make a humor, such as he mixed up “you’re” and “your”for use. He said that “you’re baby is coming” and “your a loser” for purpose. He also used the language to express dissatisfaction about cable-television company, for example: “spit on the billing department.” So language is not only a communication tool, but also it is word game. Sometimes, some words were sounds alike such as “Barry Manilow” and “Busta Rhymes”, but you will never saw them show up at the same place. If you saw that, it is because you misunderstood. Then, Mr. Language listed some sentences which have two meanings, for example: a slogan of “Cadet 2” commode was “get more out of your toilet.” I thought the real meaning of this slogan is make your toilet became better used, however, it also can understand like that you can get some things from your toilet which sounds disgusting. Mr. Language makes fun of language and showed some ways of using language to create some humor. I thought that people need some techniques of using language to communicate more interesting.
Classification of characteristics
Have you heard a famous saying that you can’t find two pieces of the same leaves in the world? This principle also applies to characteristics of human beings. Even twins can look very alike, but they may not have the same characteristics. For centuries, people have tried to place personality types into different categories. Following 1900s Philosopher Kants thoughts, characteristics can be divided into different mental functioning aspects: thinking type, emotional type and volitional type.
People who belong to the thinking type are likely to think calmly, and can use reason to measure and control all action. They would like to observe initiatively, can understand comprehensively, have agile minds, good memories and rich imaginations Most people in this type have a good background such as high education which provide them ways and abilities to analyze problems and situations. However, many thinking people can be afraid of their own emotions. They like to analyze research , pulled away in the environment. They were too likely to be analytical and to not dare to take action; thus they may have lost some good chances. Obviously, thinking is a good thing because people were made to grow and progress through our minds. However, too much thinking cannot help solve problems and may even miss opportunities for action.
In people's daily lives, you may find that some people are sentimental and sad-faced all day. This was spoken in abnormal psychology of being the emotional type of abnormal personality. The emotional type’s expression was that a certain mood was dominant in people's lives. There were still three categories in emotion personality which are the depression type personality, manic type personality, and emotional circular personality. These three personalities are all have a certain mood in their lives. For example: depression type personality people always feel sad and gloomy. These kinds of people were suitable to engage in an art field such as music, painting, and design. Because they have more feelings and are more sensitive than others, most of emotional-type people have talent for art.
People who have a clear aim and action initiatively were part of volitional type.This type of person has a very good self-control ability, has their own opinion and are not dominated by others, show calm and courage in emergencies or difficult cases, and treat work seriously and responsibility. These kinds of people can be suitable to do some professional work like doing some research on science or being a policeman. Because they have stable moods and they know the importance of perseverance. Thus this kind of person would have success based on their endurance.
From the analysis of these characteristics, we know the merits and drawbacks of each characteristic and have a general knowledge of what ourselves belong to. No one’s characteristic is perfect, but we can make some progress in developing our personality if we know our weakness. A good personality can make life easier, happier, and more meaningful.
Racism experiment
Recently, I watched a movie about racism in elementary classes. The teacher divided her students by the color of their eyes, and then treated them differently to show them that being discriminated is not an easy thing. This experiment is an excellent example of how discrimination and racism work. Racism is people of color being treated unfairly which started from hundreds of years ago and still exists now. Racism started prominently with the “slave trade” period, when people of color were being traded as commodities. They worked on plantations with poor conditions and no wages. People looked down upon them and regarded them as second-class citizens, so people did not socialize with them because socializing with people of color was a shameful thing in their perspective. People of color felt depressed and hopeless about being discriminated against. Gradually, people of color thought that maybe they really were inferior to other people, which hurt their confidence and influenced their work efficiency. The movie also gave us a good example on how to eliminate racism, which is educating people in their early stage and making them experience the feeling of being discriminated. The point was made that people feeling it themselves was practical and effective. However, educating people that racism is unfair and ridiculous is not enough. I hope that discrimination can be eliminated gradually in future and everyone can be treated fairly.
Only two kinds of people in the world
These days I watched a famous Indian movie called “My name is Khan” which talked about a man with Asperger Syndrome from India fall in love with a single mother called Madira, but his last name made his stepson involved into a racial attack and died. The single mother felt depressed and angry to put all the responsibilities to Khan and asked Khan to tell the US president that he is not a terrorist. Khan did it and lived together with Madira again.
Khan has some barriers to communicate with people and he can’t stand bright color especially yellow. However, these barriers didn’t prevent him to do good things and bring happiness to people. He treated people sincerely, and loves everyone around him. When he was young, he helped his teacher to drain off the water in yard. When he was fall in love with Madira, he found and shown the beautiful scenery to Madira. When he married Madira, he loved and cared her son as his own family. Though Khan has Asperger Syndrome and not acts like a normal people, he still has truly friends and families who loved him deeply. So if we want be loved, we should love people first. Love is unlimited liability and “love made us together.”
Madira was a beautiful and warm-hearted woman and she knew what true love was. She accepted the love from Khan bravely and not cared about his disease at all. Think about the modern society now, most people get married with people for his or her wealth or status instead of love. They became more materialism and lost the most precious part of human life, to find a really lover. The really lover can make you happy and get inner peace which was different from material marriage.
Sam was Khan’s stepson and became Khan’s friend later. He was a smart and filial child who cared his mother so much and don’t mind share love of her mother with another man. However, his bravado made he died when he has attacked by some teenagers. Sometimes, we should eat dirt when we in the dry tree to protect ourselves. Don’t do stupid thing at the expense of our lives which will hurt the people who love you.
Khan’s mother told Khan that “there are only two kinds of people live in this world, good people and bad people.” Which illustrate that people can be divided by their behaviors of do good things or bad things and not judged by other guidelines such as religion, ethic or nationality. Never attribute all the bad things to Muslims, though Muslims have some extreme behaviors sometime. Most Muslims are good people who love themselves, their families and love peace.
The whole movie was very touching and told us many profound truths such as how to love people around you, how to avoid unnecessary hurt and how to divided people . Love is short and rarity, so we should do right things to make us happy, to take care of people who we love and be a man who love peace. These are times of world peace and every person from different country, with different religions can coexisted peacefully is a great thing.
Interesting places in China 10/10/11
Chen Du 1 EN1313 Iyengar 0/02/11
How to get to America for study from China?
The quality of education in the United States is famous throughout the world; because of this, many people want to go to America to experience the different learning styles and cultures. If you want to go to the United States to study, you can follow the steps which are discussed below.To begin with, you should graduate from your school. If you fail some courses, you can’t get a graduation certificate, and then you will not be able to study abroad. It is important to work hard to get the certificate, and you should make your grades as high as you can. If you have a high GPA score, then you can apply to a better school.Secondly, you should apply to schools in America six months in advance. Generally, people always apply to more than 3 schools, so they can compare and choose. You can apply to the school from the internet by yourself, or go to an intermediary agent to help you. The latter saves trouble because they will do everything for you. When deciding which school to attend, most people consider cost, school ranking, and local weather in the US. In the US, private schools are more expensive than the public schools, but you can get a better education and accommodation in a private school. And the southern regions of American are warm like in Texas; however, the northern regions of America such as Montana are cold.What’s more, the next crucial step is to procure permission to go abroad. To get an I-20 from an American school, you should bring all your materials such as graduation certificate and financials to Shanghai to get a Visa. In China, there are a lot of people who get visas every day, so you have to make a reservation with the embassy first. Usually, the visa officer will ask you some general questions to make sure you don’t have immigrant intent. You just have to reply to the questions honestly.Moreover, after you get a visa, you can book a plane ticket online or through a travel agency. Considering it is a long journey from China to America, you should choose a big airline company because they will provide a larger air plane that is suitable for people to sit for 20 hours, and will provide better food. Sometimes, booking a plane ticket earlier and through a travel agency can get a much cheaper ticket. And if you know the exactly time of your return, you can buy round trip air tickets which will be less expensive.Last but not least, you should go to the airport safely and on time. If you depart from the city that is not your hometown, you can arrive at that city one day in advance to avoid being late for the plane or if some emergency happens. At that day, you should very careful about everything, especially paying attention on your passport, tickets, cell phones and so on. Once you enter the airport, you should follow the directions to go aboard, and if you are lost in the airport, you can ask the work force for help.In my opinion, applying to the school and getting a visa are the most important steps, because most people spend a lot of time on them and they are easy to get trouble compared with other steps. So you should be most careful with those two steps. I hope you can go to American to study smoothly.
Dear Flower
When I was at six years old, my parents took me to Yun Nan province to spend our vocation. Like other vacations, my father always bought a lot of things for me but this time I refused because I want to have a dog. I said to my father:“I don’t want beautiful clothes this time, I want a tiny dog.’’ My father promised me and took me to a pet market right then. There were so many pets there and it was too hard for a six year old child to decide which to choose. Suddenly, I saw a man in the corner and there was a basket in front of him. I went over and found three beautiful dogs in it. I liked these little thing so much and I couldn’t move my eyes off them. I choose a white dog with some yellow dots on it. She looked so smart and beautiful that I wanted to keep her. She even knew she should pee in the toilet when we were in hotel. After our vocation, we took her home.
Flower grew up gradually and she knew me very much. When I were happy, she seemed happier than me. She jumped with me, danced with me, played games with me. When I was depressed, she didn’t say anything, and she just accompanied me quietly. Sometimes, I sat on sofa the whole day, and she was not going anywhere just laid on my legs. When I was sick, she was on my bed to help me get over the disease.
However, she is not a perfect girl, when I played with other dogs, she would get jealous of it and fight with other dogs. Though she did this, I still loved her very much. One day, she really grew up because she gave birth to a dog. She loves her baby so much and don’t let anyone to touch her baby. After seven days, her baby could open his eyes. She just left her baby alone, go out to take a walk and relax but shortly afterwards, she robbed food with her baby unexpectedly I thought maybe she didn’t love her baby anymore, so I gave her baby to my sister. After Flower found her baby was not there anymore, so she started to miss her baby. At that time, I couldn’t make her baby back on account for my sister and her baby was get along with each other. Fortunately, time can solve everything. Flower didn’t miss her child after two weeks.
Good times don’t last long, Flower passed away suddenly when I was eleven years old. She was poisoned by rat poison when she played outside, so she died at night and all of my families were slept so no one noticed until the next morning. It was too late to take her to see a doctor. I still remembered her face when she died, and she was crying. I knew she was in pain and didn’t want to die. But I couldn’t help her,and we felt guilty about we didn’t take care of her, so we cried for a long time and buried her. It was tough thing to receive the fact and face it, for a long time, as long as people mentioned Flower in front of me, then I cried. My families and I didn’t want to go through this pain again so we decided not to keep a pet anymore. Although I couldn’t see Flower in my rest of my life, I could remember all details of things that we all have done. I felt comfortable when I reminded she was laid on my legs; I felt happy when I reminded of her jealous face; I felt more energy when I thought of her. My families were always mentioned Flower as she never left us. I hope she can live better in the heaven and God must like her so much for she was such a smart and beautiful girl.
Marina Christina Robles
I have an interview with Marina Robles who is a really nice woman in the VP office.
Marina Robles’s full name is Marina Christina Robles. Her first name is Marina which from a late Latin name, a feminine form of the family name Marinus and it means “of the sea.” Christina is her middle name, which represents female and comes from Greece. The Greek name Christina means “Christ-bearer.” As for her last name Robles which is Spanish and comes from the plural of roble “oak.” She got the name by her parents, and her parents also call her Cotsie for no reason. She likes her name very much, so she never changed it. However, if she has a chance to change it, she will choose Bella as her name because of the sound.
People in China also have their last name and given name. They say their last name first then the given name such as Du Chen. Du is my family name and Chen is my given name. However, American people say their given name first, then their last name, for example Marina Robles. They often inherit their father’s last name, and get their given name by families, but they don’t name their children after any people. They look into dictionary to find a word which means good and sounds good for the baby. Even when these children grow up and don’t like their names, most of people don’t change their names to show respect to their family.
From the interview, I learned the similarities and cultural difference about names, and it is my first time interviewing someone in English, so it is a good memory to me.
Review questions of chapter 1 ----The importance of using sources effectively
1. What advantages are provided by learning how to write well?
Writing help you thinking and learning well, develops lifelong skills and contribute to the great conversation.
2. What are the benefits sources provide to a researcher?
Sources provide context, strengthen your argument, add interest to paper, provide you with new ideas, reveal controversies and help you understand how reasoned argument works.
3. Explain how the use of sources strengthens your writing.
Using sources demonstrates that you performed research and have integrated the findings and ideas of others into your own argument.
4. Discuss the reasons for citing sources.
Citing help reader to understand, show respect for fellow knowledge workers and avoid plagiarism.
5. What is meant by the statement, “your thinking is the star”?
The most important thing in a paper is not the resources, is how you do with resources to show your thinking.
Questions for thought and discussionchapter 1 ----The importance of using sources effectively
1. Think about the last paper you wrote. Apart from the new knowledge you gained about the subject, did you gain anything else, such as improved thinking skills or stronger writing skills?
The last paper I wrote is the narrative essay about childhood memory. It needs people to think, to recall the experience and to organize it in a right way.
2. Have you ever written a research paper where you commented very little on your sources? If so, so you think you learned less than if you had written more about the sources?
Yes, but I don’t think that I will learned less than if I had written more about the sources because cite and use sources is also a way to learn and understand the points.
3. Has this chapter made you more enthusiastic about writing a research paper? Why or why not?
Yes, it made me more enthusiastic about writing a research paper because this chapter made me realized that learn to write better will benefit myself for lifelong.
4. Has this chapter convinced you of the value of citation? Why or why not?
Yes, I always know that we should cite the resources. It is not only to respect the author, but also it is a way to show our honest.
I'll ask you three times, are you OK? by Nioami Shihab Nye
Introduction
When author spend her days in Syracuse, she happened to meet a taxi driver who ask author three times to make sure whether she is safe and comfortable on the way. Author feels good because of the kind and careful driver. She thinks that taxi driver knew more things than we do and hope people can enjoy safe travels and interesting conversation with decent drivers.
Fabric thrown over the city
One day, the author went out early to see her teachers at Columbia. On her way to the destination, she happened to meet a driver told her some meaningful ideas. The driver said: today you will say things you can predict and other things you could never imagine this minute. Don’t reject them, let them come through when they’re ready, don’t think you can plan it all out. Author agrees with this idea and thinks this idea already come to her head early.
Way to go
Peace Prigrim walked between cities in the United States and she just takes a ride inside a city. When she was tired, she’ll just sleep wherever she is such as in a cardboard box under an overpass. She gives speech to college students and radio audience about how to live to get inner peace. And our lives are in the hands of ourselves because we know human, we are human beings.
Shopping for nothing
Grandma Marie felt less lonely in the world while riding a bus and sometimes she takes a bus ride because it feel better for belonged to the human race again. She likes all window display artists and skinny mannequins but she timid to go to the stores and buy nothing. Grandma Marie loves the life that glittering ladies have and imagine the life which you cannot lose it.
Take me with you
Author wrote several times about take a ride with other people such as neighbor boy, father, mother’s friend Irama, taxi driver and mother. Author likes the road she hadn’t turned on yet but knew she would one day. And being rich would be nice, but it wasn’t as important as having a big life.
Taxi, North from Jerusalem (vague)
Author once kissed a man in a taxi driver’s backseat and made the driver awkward because it was in Arab. People think it is a kind of rude thing. However, author still remembered the uncomfortable driver more than the person she kissed at that time.
What happens?
Sometimes, when you take a taxi, it can be treated as a transaction for you paid money to take it. However, you will get a bonus if you lucky enough. Like author met some taxi drivers are smart enough to solve all the government problems or have more experience on something than normal people. Also, you may meet some bad or weird taxi driver; you have to get out immediately or just listen to them and answer them wisely.
The thread
This chapter is about author met a guy in campus called Dubby who have same initials with cat DC and Dubby turned to my partner in Psychology class. Before the middle test, author have a fever so she can’t go to school and didn’t reach to Dubby to remind he to keep the chart up-to-date until the last few days so they didn’t do well. Author didn’t get her license so she was Dubby’s frequent passenger. One day, they drive together and take a cat with them, unfortunately, they have an accident but they didn’t get hurt. After policeman came over and call author’s mother to come to take them home, the two people were taken cared but the cat was dead.
Dora
The author hasn’t been home for a few months, and she find that a strange woman were seated in the backseat of the car when she get home. She never meets this kind of situation, and she asked the woman’s name. The woman just answered “Dora” and she can’t speak English. The author don’t know how to do and drive home to ask suggestions from her parents. Her father said that take this woman to newspaper and ask someone to interview her, but her mother felt it would make her nervous so don’t agree with it. They try to find some clues from the woman’s expressions when they are on the different street. Finally, the woman smiled because they came to the street called “Dora”, and find her home fortunately.
Random taxis
On a rainy day, the author was waiting in the lobby to take a taxi. While she is waiting, she read the history of the hotel. The hotel has a lot of rooms, various tub and beautiful anteroom.
She met a taxi driver who is in North Carolina and he loves Carolina so much, he thinks people in North Carolina people have true friendliness because they really care about people’s feeling, and not just empty talk.
Greenhouse
This chapter is about the first car which the author got from her parents and it is very poor and cheap. However, the author loves it a lot though it had ended up ten years ago. Now, it is in the field full of soil and sun-flowers growing inside it. In her perspective, no more cars like this one are natural and environmental. She also loves the later cars but cannot compared with the first one.
Passport
The author had been to three different countries and met three kinds of drivers such as Indian drivers, Paris drivers and Mexico drivers. In India, the driver was greedy to wait them and ask them for the large amount of money. In Paris, the taxi driver is honest and integrity because he send their lost things back. As for Mexico, it is a dangerous city and many people are robbed by taxi drivers so people there don’t dare to take a taxi.
Sometimes, you become the driver of someone else and will get used to it. And car is a private space which you can do something you like, just follow your feelings.
The same bed
The taxi driver asked the author a couple of questions like what she is going and what she thinks about now. She said that she is not sleep last night and read all of the guest books. And she found that on the bed of she slept someone got spider bites on it. So she can’t fall asleep anymore.
Monsters
The author in the Scotland met a taxi driver who is honest and talked a lot with the author. They talked about the people in Scotland are more relax and live interesting because they don’t hope the political office wound do something good. On the other hand, American people will cynical about politics because they think they have power to control the politics. For instance, they can vote for a better person. Author felt they have a nice talk and really enjoyed it.
Brown
The author happened to met a taxi driver who is a white man but he is like to become tanned because tanned will make you look healthier than pale. The author reminded that she has read a book which writes about people look down to darker color people, but they want tanned now and tanned will cost you a lot of money.
Rollentina
Everything belongs to the one who experienced it so the author feel central human experience when she riding in a taxi, passing in a car. Once she is driving some persons to the airport, she drived very slowly because it is snowy and she is not a good driver. However, people in the backseat didn’t realize it and keep talking. The author learned that she can listen and watch when you felt tongue-tied
Random taxis
On a rainy day, the author was waiting in the lobby to take a taxi. While she is waiting, she read the history of the hotel. The hotel has a lot of rooms, various tub and beautiful anteroom.
She met a taxi driver who is in North Carolina and he loves Carolina so much, he thinks people in North Carolina people have true friendliness because they really care about people’s feeling, and not just empty talk.
Greenhouse
This chapter is about the first car which the author got from her parents and it is very poor and cheap. However, the author loves it a lot though it had ended up ten years ago. Now, it is in the field full of soil and sun-flowers growing inside it. In her perspective, no more cars like this one are natural and environmental. She also loves the later cars but cannot compared with the first one.
Passport
The author had been to three different countries and met three kinds of drivers such as Indian drivers, Paris drivers and Mexico drivers. In India, the driver was greedy to wait them and ask them for the large amount of money. In Paris, the taxi driver is honest and integrity because he send their lost things back. As for Mexico, it is a dangerous city and many people are robbed by taxi drivers so people there don’t dare to take a taxi.
Sometimes, you become the driver of someone else and will get used to it. And car is a private space which you can do something you like, just follow your feelings.
The same bed
The taxi driver asked the author a couple of questions like what she is going and what she thinks about now. She said that she is not sleep last night and read all of the guest books. And she found that on the bed of she slept someone got spider bites on it. So she can’t fall asleep anymore.
Monsters
The author in the Scotland met a taxi driver who is honest and talked a lot with the author. They talked about the people in Scotland are more relax and live interesting because they don’t hope the political office wound do something good. On the other hand, American people will cynical about politics because they think they have power to control the politics. For instance, they can vote for a better person. Author felt they have a nice talk and really enjoyed it.
Brown
The author happened to met a taxi driver who is a white man but he is like to become tanned because tanned will make you look healthier than pale. The author reminded that she has read a book which writes about people look down to darker color people, but they want tanned now and tanned will cost you a lot of money.
Rollentina
Everything belongs to the one who experienced it so the author feel central human experience when she riding in a taxi, passing in a car. Once she is driving some persons to the airport, she drived very slowly because it is snowy and she is not a good driver. However, people in the backseat didn’t realize it and keep talking. The author learned that she can listen and watch when you felt tongue-tied.
Test Case
When author take a taxi in Delhi, road closed made a desperate traffic jam. They were waited there for few hours, the taxi driver asked the author if she mind he take the new fly-over？She answered that of course not. So they were flying over everyone else, but the author felt strange why other people don’t take this way. The taxi driver said that because no one trusted this yet and they were watched them to see what happens. So the author and the taxi driver were the test case.
Mouth of the rat
When author spent her time in Florida, she didn’t see her taxi driver at the airport but another taxi driver would like to take her with another passages. It was an over-sized white limousine and she try to talk with them to break the silence. The talked about journey, occupation and houses. The author found they are nice gradually and the taxi said they were tried to act normal.
Sightseeing
One day, in the morning of San Antonio, the author saw a man with a cat in the parking lot of the Sanitary Tortilla Factory. The cat has an observant gaze which made the author interested into this two. The cat likes to take a ride in the car everyday to see different places with this man.
Tips
The author has to visit the international teachers’ conference, but the taxi was still not come after she has waited for forty minutes. She had to take a taxi with another woman together and share cost. On their way to the destination, the taxi driver keeps talking about everything along the road and these two ladies response him in turn.
Lending library
One taxi driver had waited for author for three hours because she’s plane is late. The taxi driver said a book saved his tonight for waited so long, then the driver and author started to chat about favorite books. The driver’s favorite author is the author’s friend which made the driver felt happy and willing talk to the author more. This driver is encouraged by a book called “snow leopard” to visit many places and the author appreciate his life very much. At the last, the driver insists on lending the author a book to read.
No room at the inn
The author arrived at the hotel in the very late evening and she book a room in advance, but the staff in the hotel give this room to everyone else and let author to go to another town to find a hotel. However, they gave a wrong direction to them and made them lost. They went to a hotel called “lorenzo’s Italt”, the manager of this hotel treat them well to give a lot of food and correct directions to the destination though not provide a room for author. Finally, they found the right hotel and the author called the origin hotel ask them to pay all of this extra cost.
Bruce
Author talked about Bruce with a taxi driver once, and the taxi driver is a big fan of him unexpected. After that, the driver told author many star’s really character in daily life. Compared with Bruce, the other star are not nice to people though they have everything. So they think Bruce is a true star.
Fun with grandpa
Author dialed her father to speak to her child and found her father is driving now and her child is in the back of the truck. The author thought it is against the law to stay at there and driving with one hand. She started to teach them a lesson, but her child doesn’t listen to her and talked about the great time with grandpa.
Free day in Toronto
When the author took her son to attend a children’s literature conference at a university of Toronto, she felt uncomfortable, so she go to hospital. At the hospital, she met several kinds of patients even met a friend who called Jennifer and worked there. Author felt that her son is grow up and love her so much through his responses to her sick. She also found that interesting story which is Dave Egger hitchhikers in Cuba and met a lot of people. Thus, she wanted to do it, too.
Criminal handbags
When the author takes a taxi in New York, she met a taxi driver who was counterfeit bags before and got into jail once. He said that this is an easy and quick way to make money in New York and he want to go back to Egypt after he earned enough money. The author persuades him that it is a terrible way to make money and he can make money in legal way such as be a model of a magazine. However, he didn’t listen to it. At last, he mistaken the author to a wrong place but it is not a counterfeit.
Too many cars
This chapter recorded that cars crushed into her parents’ house two times. One time is the car crushed into her father’s office and waked her father and mother up. The driver was drunk and driven through the voltage pole in all directions so he got fined for driving while intoxicated. The author’s parents got a new office window for refuse to his dinner. As for the second time, the driver was also drunk and drove his car into the house’s yard and left CDs there. The author thought she should return it back so she drove to see him and gave it back. The diver was so surprised that she didn’t punch him or give a lecture to him, but return the CDs and said something softly to him instead. However, when they drove back, their car broken down and her father didn’t want to say anything about it because he hates this traffic and didn’t want to return it, too.
After all that walking
Driving is a dangerous thing which can caused death, especially when people take a taxi, it is means to give a life to a stranger’s hand. But we shouldn’t worry about too much because we can’t go to many places or do many things if we care about too much.
Gifts
The author met two drivers who were from Middle East which have bad relations with America and lead to people from that places live in a miserable life. The first driver was from Lebanon and he loved the Arab show very much and can stand to cry. The author gave a free ticket to him which made him very moving and refused to take money from the author. And the second driver was from Jerusalem and never received the money from me which made me felt strange. At the last, he said that he thought the author seemed familiar and he thought about his families in hometown who were lived a terrible life now.
Roses
It is a story about talked about flower with a taxi driver in Washington and compares the number of roses owned. In author’s perspectives, planting flowers is beauty and not a matter. When the author praise the tulips were keeping their heads on even in heavy wind, the driver said that it is just nature which explains everything.
Backseat
The author’s aunties died when author’s boy was only three-year-old and it is difficult to explain the fact to child. After the little boy asked for many times, she said that they were in heaven which has peace and flowers. The author and her son felt depressed about it. However, a little scrap of paper was blown up and came back which is interesting and amazing, as if the aunties were still with us.
Wiki is one of software tool to create online workspace that allows members to edit pages, read and share resources without complicated technology. People using wiki for two reasons; one is used as “scratchpad” and the other is used for corporate intranet or massive documentation project.
The technology of wiki starts from the mid-1990s and wiki means “quick” in Hawaiian. Wikis can be different depend on programming languages, server platform and additional programs. So the software installed on a Web server should in harmony with wiki package you selected. Though different wikis need different software, wikis still share many general features such as easy to create links to old or new pages, preliminary security controls, revision control and search functionality. Wiki also should ensure that relevant navigation structure are suitable for all of the users, no matter authors, editors or readers. Wikis helped distributed information sharing and exchange shared server space which faster and decreased cost compared to traditional ways of exchanging information. In addition, al team members can have writing and editing privileges, so it eased of use from any location and any time. What’s more, the technology simplifies wiki which encourage members to work more effectively and attracting anybody who like to add or edit content. Last not the least, wikis provide a social space for team members who work remotely.
Regardless of above merits of wikis, wikis still have some disadvantage. To begin with, wikis require the users to learn wiki syntax because formatting of wikis is hard. Secondly, the collaborative environment of wikis may make users feel uncomfortable. Moreover, wikis is a space that any people can show their own opinions, so when writers holding strongly opposing views, the pages will become disorderly. Furthermore, the basic design is out of fashion and the navigation systems are not applied to wiki pages. Fifth, the resources are intensive due to consuming storage spaces and overload an underpowered server. The last is individual can’t take advantage of many features of wikis.
The design of wikis follows the gold standard in technical communication which was intuitive design. Wiki keep pace with the growth of the content and as an existing internal website, don’t customize the default template with site-wide navigation menus. Wiki developing guidelines should best serve the needs of the group, and ethnographic fieldwork and internet surveys are methods for examining wiki design.
All in all, wikis are useful online tool that can help work groups collaborate with each other more easily and frequently cross the lines between author and reader.
College life in US and China
Many people said that the best time in their life was the four years of their college lives because they got to know the specific field better. They interested in and fell in love with someone at their best age. However, college life is different from different country due to different cultures. When I came to America as a transfer student, I had already spent two years in college in China. So I experienced both the cultures and I found that students in American college have totally different lives to the students in universities of China.
There are several differences between US and China college life. Firstly, choosing classes was an important step for American students because they should have to arrange their classes reasonably such as choosing some difficult courses and some easy courses at the same time. If they select all difficult classes in one semester, they will have too much pressure and may fail some courses. So, people choose classes with advisor’s help and suggestions. According to professor March (2010), “elective system provide more freedom to students and make students studied effectively”(p 22). However, Chinese students don’t have to worry about choosing classes because they have fixed classes which are already arranged by the school. It means that Chinese students should take fixed courses at a time and they don’t have right to choose classes.
What’s more, American students not only have right to choose classes, but also have more learning styles to choose. Some Americans like to study alone in a closed small room which they can reserve at the library. On the contrary, some people like to study as a group and library also provides them with a big table and blackboard. Especially, Americans like to study with a tutor and the tutor will teach them every aspect of college life. They focus is not only on academics, but also some guidelines on how to live a better college life. Vogel (2007) states that, “tutoring participation contributed to a general feeling of efficacy and to a great use of learning strategies and skills” (p 485). Compared to learning styles in US, Chinese students prefer to study alone and when they need to do a project or have some difficult problem, they like to set up a discussion group.
Most American students like to “study hard, play hard,” which means when they study, they pay attention to studies; when they play, they put all of energy to have fun. In their leisure time, they will have a part time job to prove that they are grown up and independent. Students in America like to get involved in the society, I agree with Deresiewicz (2010), “From the time you started high school and maybe even junior high, your whole goal was to get into the best college you could, and so now you naturally think about your life in terms of "getting into" whatever's next” (p 10) However, most Chinese students don’t have jobs until they graduate from university. They like to spend their time on their hobbies such as playing music, dancing and reading. They still act as an active student by doing things that is appealing to teachers and parents.
Apparently, there are a lot of differences between college life in US and college life in China. The different college lives are dependent on different students with different culture background.
References
Parel, D. (2010). Amherst student. New York: New York Public Library.
Vogel, G. (2007). Peer Tutoring for College Students With Learning Disabilities: Perceptions of Tutors and Tutees. Journal Of Learning Disabilities, 40(6), 485.
Deresiewicz, W. (2010). What Are You Going to Do With That?. Chronicle Of Higher Education, 57(7), B10.
Tolerating Intolerance
This paragraph is about a teacher tolerated a student’s narrow and limited view on racial discrimination and made himself realized his wrong through let him write his own opinion, and then discussed it with the other class. The teacher felt pleased that she helped students understand the issue better by a moderate and reason way.
Many teachers may not have this patience to teach students like this way, and they like to correct student’s view in a serious way and not listen to student’s opinion. Most students would not put forward some extreme ideas in the classroom which will decrease the funny of class and limited the minds of students. For example, when I was in elementary school, teacher like to ask us what we want to do in future? Students answered: “scientist, doctor, musician, businessman and so on” In fact, when people at elementary school, they know nothing about these specific job of future careers. They replied with these answer is because they know these answer can please with teachers. If one student reply with “I don’t want get a job” which was truth, but it would be laughed at by other students. So most of answers in classroom seems lack of authenticity and made people felt boring.
We hope more teachers can encourage students to say something true and have ability to tolerating intolerance which can make students grow and make a progress dramatically and make the classroom became vivid and interesting. The teacher also can felt a sense of achievement through these true exchanges.
Summary of Mr. Language person takes some of your questions
The whole article illustrated the humor of language from different aspects by conversations between questioner and Mr. Language. It was talked about the humor works through spelling, grammar rules and unlikely words or ideas together for a humorous effect. Mr. Language used some spelling mistakes to make a humor, such as he mixed up “you’re” and “your”for use. He said that “you’re baby is coming” and “your a loser” for purpose. He also used the language to express dissatisfaction about cable-television company, for example: “spit on the billing department.” So language is not only a communication tool, but also it is word game. Sometimes, some words were sounds alike such as “Barry Manilow” and “Busta Rhymes”, but you will never saw them show up at the same place. If you saw that, it is because you misunderstood. Then, Mr. Language listed some sentences which have two meanings, for example: a slogan of “Cadet 2” commode was “get more out of your toilet.” I thought the real meaning of this slogan is make your toilet became better used, however, it also can understand like that you can get some things from your toilet which sounds disgusting. Mr. Language makes fun of language and showed some ways of using language to create some humor. I thought that people need some techniques of using language to communicate more interesting.
Classification of characteristics
Have you heard a famous saying that you can’t find two pieces of the same leaves in the world? This principle also applies to characteristics of human beings. Even twins can look very alike, but they may not have the same characteristics. For centuries, people have tried to place personality types into different categories. Following 1900s Philosopher Kants thoughts, characteristics can be divided into different mental functioning aspects: thinking type, emotional type and volitional type.
People who belong to the thinking type are likely to think calmly, and can use reason to measure and control all action. They would like to observe initiatively, can understand comprehensively, have agile minds, good memories and rich imaginations Most people in this type have a good background such as high education which provide them ways and abilities to analyze problems and situations. However, many thinking people can be afraid of their own emotions. They like to analyze research , pulled away in the environment. They were too likely to be analytical and to not dare to take action; thus they may have lost some good chances. Obviously, thinking is a good thing because people were made to grow and progress through our minds. However, too much thinking cannot help solve problems and may even miss opportunities for action.
In people's daily lives, you may find that some people are sentimental and sad-faced all day. This was spoken in abnormal psychology of being the emotional type of abnormal personality. The emotional type’s expression was that a certain mood was dominant in people's lives. There were still three categories in emotion personality which are the depression type personality, manic type personality, and emotional circular personality. These three personalities are all have a certain mood in their lives. For example: depression type personality people always feel sad and gloomy. These kinds of people were suitable to engage in an art field such as music, painting, and design. Because they have more feelings and are more sensitive than others, most of emotional-type people have talent for art.
People who have a clear aim and action initiatively were part of volitional type.This type of person has a very good self-control ability, has their own opinion and are not dominated by others, show calm and courage in emergencies or difficult cases, and treat work seriously and responsibility. These kinds of people can be suitable to do some professional work like doing some research on science or being a policeman. Because they have stable moods and they know the importance of perseverance. Thus this kind of person would have success based on their endurance.
From the analysis of these characteristics, we know the merits and drawbacks of each characteristic and have a general knowledge of what ourselves belong to. No one’s characteristic is perfect, but we can make some progress in developing our personality if we know our weakness. A good personality can make life easier, happier, and more meaningful.
Racism experiment
Recently, I watched a movie about racism in elementary classes. The teacher divided her students by the color of their eyes, and then treated them differently to show them that being discriminated is not an easy thing. This experiment is an excellent example of how discrimination and racism work. Racism is people of color being treated unfairly which started from hundreds of years ago and still exists now.
Racism started prominently with the “slave trade” period, when people of color were being traded as commodities. They worked on plantations with poor conditions and no wages. People looked down upon them and regarded them as second-class citizens, so people did not socialize with them because socializing with people of color was a shameful thing in their perspective. People of color felt depressed and hopeless about being discriminated against. Gradually, people of color thought that maybe they really were inferior to other people, which hurt their confidence and influenced their work efficiency.
The movie also gave us a good example on how to eliminate racism, which is educating people in their early stage and making them experience the feeling of being discriminated. The point was made that people feeling it themselves was practical and effective. However, educating people that racism is unfair and ridiculous is not enough. I hope that discrimination can be eliminated gradually in future and everyone can be treated fairly.
Only two kinds of people in the world
These days I watched a famous Indian movie called “My name is Khan” which talked about a man with Asperger Syndrome from India fall in love with a single mother called Madira, but his last name made his stepson involved into a racial attack and died. The single mother felt depressed and angry to put all the responsibilities to Khan and asked Khan to tell the US president that he is not a terrorist. Khan did it and lived together with Madira again.
Khan has some barriers to communicate with people and he can’t stand bright color especially yellow. However, these barriers didn’t prevent him to do good things and bring happiness to people. He treated people sincerely, and loves everyone around him. When he was young, he helped his teacher to drain off the water in yard. When he was fall in love with Madira, he found and shown the beautiful scenery to Madira. When he married Madira, he loved and cared her son as his own family. Though Khan has Asperger Syndrome and not acts like a normal people, he still has truly friends and families who loved him deeply. So if we want be loved, we should love people first. Love is unlimited liability and “love made us together.”
Madira was a beautiful and warm-hearted woman and she knew what true love was. She accepted the love from Khan bravely and not cared about his disease at all. Think about the modern society now, most people get married with people for his or her wealth or status instead of love. They became more materialism and lost the most precious part of human life, to find a really lover. The really lover can make you happy and get inner peace which was different from material marriage.
Sam was Khan’s stepson and became Khan’s friend later. He was a smart and filial child who cared his mother so much and don’t mind share love of her mother with another man. However, his bravado made he died when he has attacked by some teenagers. Sometimes, we should eat dirt when we in the dry tree to protect ourselves. Don’t do stupid thing at the expense of our lives which will hurt the people who love you.
Khan’s mother told Khan that “there are only two kinds of people live in this world, good people and bad people.” Which illustrate that people can be divided by their behaviors of do good things or bad things and not judged by other guidelines such as religion, ethic or nationality. Never attribute all the bad things to Muslims, though Muslims have some extreme behaviors sometime. Most Muslims are good people who love themselves, their families and love peace.
The whole movie was very touching and told us many profound truths such as how to love people around you, how to avoid unnecessary hurt and how to divided people . Love is short and rarity, so we should do right things to make us happy, to take care of people who we love and be a man who love peace. These are times of world peace and every person from different country, with different religions can coexisted peacefully is a great thing.
Interesting places in China
10/10/11
Chen Du 1
EN1313
Iyengar
0/02/11
How to get to America for study from China?
The quality of education in the United States is famous throughout the world; because of this, many people want to go to America to experience the different learning styles and cultures. If you want to go to the United States to study, you can follow the steps which are discussed below.To begin with, you should graduate from your school. If you fail some courses, you can’t get a graduation certificate, and then you will not be able to study abroad. It is important to work hard to get the certificate, and you should make your grades as high as you can. If you have a high GPA score, then you can apply to a better school.Secondly, you should apply to schools in America six months in advance. Generally, people always apply to more than 3 schools, so they can compare and choose. You can apply to the school from the internet by yourself, or go to an intermediary agent to help you. The latter saves trouble because they will do everything for you. When deciding which school to attend, most people consider cost, school ranking, and local weather in the US. In the US, private schools are more expensive than the public schools, but you can get a better education and accommodation in a private school. And the southern regions of American are warm like in Texas; however, the northern regions of America such as Montana are cold.What’s more, the next crucial step is to procure permission to go abroad. To get an I-20 from an American school, you should bring all your materials such as graduation certificate and financials to Shanghai to get a Visa. In China, there are a lot of people who get visas every day, so you have to make a reservation with the embassy first. Usually, the visa officer will ask you some general questions to make sure you don’t have immigrant intent. You just have to reply to the questions honestly.Moreover, after you get a visa, you can book a plane ticket online or through a travel agency. Considering it is a long journey from China to America, you should choose a big airline company because they will provide a larger air plane that is suitable for people to sit for 20 hours, and will provide better food. Sometimes, booking a plane ticket earlier and through a travel agency can get a much cheaper ticket. And if you know the exactly time of your return, you can buy round trip air tickets which will be less expensive.Last but not least, you should go to the airport safely and on time. If you depart from the city that is not your hometown, you can arrive at that city one day in advance to avoid being late for the plane or if some emergency happens. At that day, you should very careful about everything, especially paying attention on your passport, tickets, cell phones and so on. Once you enter the airport, you should follow the directions to go aboard, and if you are lost in the airport, you can ask the work force for help.In my opinion, applying to the school and getting a visa are the most important steps, because most people spend a lot of time on them and they are easy to get trouble compared with other steps. So you should be most careful with those two steps. I hope you can go to American to study smoothly.
Dear Flower
When I was at six years old, my parents took me to Yun Nan province to spend our vocation. Like other vacations, my father always bought a lot of things for me but this time I refused because I want to have a dog. I said to my father:“I don’t want beautiful clothes this time, I want a tiny dog.’’ My father promised me and took me to a pet market right then. There were so many pets there and it was too hard for a six year old child to decide which to choose. Suddenly, I saw a man in the corner and there was a basket in front of him. I went over and found three beautiful dogs in it. I liked these little thing so much and I couldn’t move my eyes off them. I choose a white dog with some yellow dots on it. She looked so smart and beautiful that I wanted to keep her. She even knew she should pee in the toilet when we were in hotel. After our vocation, we took her home.
Flower grew up gradually and she knew me very much. When I were happy, she seemed happier than me. She jumped with me, danced with me, played games with me. When I was depressed, she didn’t say anything, and she just accompanied me quietly. Sometimes, I sat on sofa the whole day, and she was not going anywhere just laid on my legs. When I was sick, she was on my bed to help me get over the disease.
However, she is not a perfect girl, when I played with other dogs, she would get jealous of it and fight with other dogs. Though she did this, I still loved her very much. One day, she really grew up because she gave birth to a dog. She loves her baby so much and don’t let anyone to touch her baby. After seven days, her baby could open his eyes. She just left her baby alone, go out to take a walk and relax but shortly afterwards, she robbed food with her baby unexpectedly I thought maybe she didn’t love her baby anymore, so I gave her baby to my sister. After Flower found her baby was not there anymore, so she started to miss her baby. At that time, I couldn’t make her baby back on account for my sister and her baby was get along with each other. Fortunately, time can solve everything. Flower didn’t miss her child after two weeks.
Good times don’t last long, Flower passed away suddenly when I was eleven years old. She was poisoned by rat poison when she played outside, so she died at night and all of my families were slept so no one noticed until the next morning. It was too late to take her to see a doctor. I still remembered her face when she died, and she was crying. I knew she was in pain and didn’t want to die. But I couldn’t help her,and we felt guilty about we didn’t take care of her, so we cried for a long time and buried her. It was tough thing to receive the fact and face it, for a long time, as long as people mentioned Flower in front of me, then I cried. My families and I didn’t want to go through this pain again so we decided not to keep a pet anymore. Although I couldn’t see Flower in my rest of my life, I could remember all details of things that we all have done. I felt comfortable when I reminded she was laid on my legs; I felt happy when I reminded of her jealous face; I felt more energy when I thought of her. My families were always mentioned Flower as she never left us. I hope she can live better in the heaven and God must like her so much for she was such a smart and beautiful girl.
Marina Christina Robles
I have an interview with Marina Robles who is a really nice woman in the VP office.
Marina Robles’s full name is Marina Christina Robles. Her first name is Marina which from a late Latin name, a feminine form of the family name Marinus and it means “of the sea.” Christina is her middle name, which represents female and comes from Greece. The Greek name Christina means “Christ-bearer.” As for her last name Robles which is Spanish and comes from the plural of roble “oak.” She got the name by her parents, and her parents also call her Cotsie for no reason. She likes her name very much, so she never changed it. However, if she has a chance to change it, she will choose Bella as her name because of the sound.
People in China also have their last name and given name. They say their last name first then the given name such as Du Chen. Du is my family name and Chen is my given name. However, American people say their given name first, then their last name, for example Marina Robles. They often inherit their father’s last name, and get their given name by families, but they don’t name their children after any people. They look into dictionary to find a word which means good and sounds good for the baby. Even when these children grow up and don’t like their names, most of people don’t change their names to show respect to their family.
From the interview, I learned the similarities and cultural difference about names, and it is my first time interviewing someone in English, so it is a good memory to me.
Review questions of chapter 1 ----The importance of using sources effectively
1. What advantages are provided by learning how to write well?
Writing help you thinking and learning well, develops lifelong skills and contribute to the great conversation.
2. What are the benefits sources provide to a researcher?
Sources provide context, strengthen your argument, add interest to paper, provide you with new ideas, reveal controversies and help you understand how reasoned argument works.
3. Explain how the use of sources strengthens your writing.
Using sources demonstrates that you performed research and have integrated the findings and ideas of others into your own argument.
4. Discuss the reasons for citing sources.
Citing help reader to understand, show respect for fellow knowledge workers and avoid plagiarism.
5. What is meant by the statement, “your thinking is the star”?
The most important thing in a paper is not the resources, is how you do with resources to show your thinking.
Questions for thought and discussionchapter 1 ----The importance of using sources effectively
1. Think about the last paper you wrote. Apart from the new knowledge you gained about the subject, did you gain anything else, such as improved thinking skills or stronger writing skills?
The last paper I wrote is the narrative essay about childhood memory. It needs people to think, to recall the experience and to organize it in a right way.
2. Have you ever written a research paper where you commented very little on your sources? If so, so you think you learned less than if you had written more about the sources?
Yes, but I don’t think that I will learned less than if I had written more about the sources because cite and use sources is also a way to learn and understand the points.
3. Has this chapter made you more enthusiastic about writing a research paper? Why or why not?
Yes, it made me more enthusiastic about writing a research paper because this chapter made me realized that learn to write better will benefit myself for lifelong.
4. Has this chapter convinced you of the value of citation? Why or why not?
Yes, I always know that we should cite the resources. It is not only to respect the author, but also it is a way to show our honest.
I'll ask you three times, are you OK? by Nioami Shihab Nye
Introduction
When author spend her days in Syracuse, she happened to meet a taxi driver who ask author three times to make sure whether she is safe and comfortable on the way. Author feels good because of the kind and careful driver. She thinks that taxi driver knew more things than we do and hope people can enjoy safe travels and interesting conversation with decent drivers.
Fabric thrown over the city
One day, the author went out early to see her teachers at Columbia. On her way to the destination, she happened to meet a driver told her some meaningful ideas. The driver said: today you will say things you can predict and other things you could never imagine this minute. Don’t reject them, let them come through when they’re ready, don’t think you can plan it all out. Author agrees with this idea and thinks this idea already come to her head early.
Way to go
Peace Prigrim walked between cities in the United States and she just takes a ride inside a city. When she was tired, she’ll just sleep wherever she is such as in a cardboard box under an overpass. She gives speech to college students and radio audience about how to live to get inner peace. And our lives are in the hands of ourselves because we know human, we are human beings.
Shopping for nothing
Grandma Marie felt less lonely in the world while riding a bus and sometimes she takes a bus ride because it feel better for belonged to the human race again. She likes all window display artists and skinny mannequins but she timid to go to the stores and buy nothing. Grandma Marie loves the life that glittering ladies have and imagine the life which you cannot lose it.
Take me with you
Author wrote several times about take a ride with other people such as neighbor boy, father, mother’s friend Irama, taxi driver and mother. Author likes the road she hadn’t turned on yet but knew she would one day. And being rich would be nice, but it wasn’t as important as having a big life.
Taxi, North from Jerusalem (vague)
Author once kissed a man in a taxi driver’s backseat and made the driver awkward because it was in Arab. People think it is a kind of rude thing. However, author still remembered the uncomfortable driver more than the person she kissed at that time.
What happens?
Sometimes, when you take a taxi, it can be treated as a transaction for you paid money to take it. However, you will get a bonus if you lucky enough. Like author met some taxi drivers are smart enough to solve all the government problems or have more experience on something than normal people. Also, you may meet some bad or weird taxi driver; you have to get out immediately or just listen to them and answer them wisely.
The thread
This chapter is about author met a guy in campus called Dubby who have same initials with cat DC and Dubby turned to my partner in Psychology class. Before the middle test, author have a fever so she can’t go to school and didn’t reach to Dubby to remind he to keep the chart up-to-date until the last few days so they didn’t do well. Author didn’t get her license so she was Dubby’s frequent passenger. One day, they drive together and take a cat with them, unfortunately, they have an accident but they didn’t get hurt. After policeman came over and call author’s mother to come to take them home, the two people were taken cared but the cat was dead.
Dora
The author hasn’t been home for a few months, and she find that a strange woman were seated in the backseat of the car when she get home. She never meets this kind of situation, and she asked the woman’s name. The woman just answered “Dora” and she can’t speak English. The author don’t know how to do and drive home to ask suggestions from her parents. Her father said that take this woman to newspaper and ask someone to interview her, but her mother felt it would make her nervous so don’t agree with it. They try to find some clues from the woman’s expressions when they are on the different street. Finally, the woman smiled because they came to the street called “Dora”, and find her home fortunately.
Random taxis
On a rainy day, the author was waiting in the lobby to take a taxi. While she is waiting, she read the history of the hotel. The hotel has a lot of rooms, various tub and beautiful anteroom.
She met a taxi driver who is in North Carolina and he loves Carolina so much, he thinks people in North Carolina people have true friendliness because they really care about people’s feeling, and not just empty talk.
Greenhouse
This chapter is about the first car which the author got from her parents and it is very poor and cheap. However, the author loves it a lot though it had ended up ten years ago. Now, it is in the field full of soil and sun-flowers growing inside it. In her perspective, no more cars like this one are natural and environmental. She also loves the later cars but cannot compared with the first one.
Passport
The author had been to three different countries and met three kinds of drivers such as Indian drivers, Paris drivers and Mexico drivers. In India, the driver was greedy to wait them and ask them for the large amount of money. In Paris, the taxi driver is honest and integrity because he send their lost things back. As for Mexico, it is a dangerous city and many people are robbed by taxi drivers so people there don’t dare to take a taxi.
Sometimes, you become the driver of someone else and will get used to it. And car is a private space which you can do something you like, just follow your feelings.
The same bed
The taxi driver asked the author a couple of questions like what she is going and what she thinks about now. She said that she is not sleep last night and read all of the guest books. And she found that on the bed of she slept someone got spider bites on it. So she can’t fall asleep anymore.
Monsters
The author in the Scotland met a taxi driver who is honest and talked a lot with the author. They talked about the people in Scotland are more relax and live interesting because they don’t hope the political office wound do something good. On the other hand, American people will cynical about politics because they think they have power to control the politics. For instance, they can vote for a better person. Author felt they have a nice talk and really enjoyed it.
Brown
The author happened to met a taxi driver who is a white man but he is like to become tanned because tanned will make you look healthier than pale. The author reminded that she has read a book which writes about people look down to darker color people, but they want tanned now and tanned will cost you a lot of money.
Rollentina
Everything belongs to the one who experienced it so the author feel central human experience when she riding in a taxi, passing in a car. Once she is driving some persons to the airport, she drived very slowly because it is snowy and she is not a good driver. However, people in the backseat didn’t realize it and keep talking. The author learned that she can listen and watch when you felt tongue-tied
Random taxis
On a rainy day, the author was waiting in the lobby to take a taxi. While she is waiting, she read the history of the hotel. The hotel has a lot of rooms, various tub and beautiful anteroom.
She met a taxi driver who is in North Carolina and he loves Carolina so much, he thinks people in North Carolina people have true friendliness because they really care about people’s feeling, and not just empty talk.
Greenhouse
This chapter is about the first car which the author got from her parents and it is very poor and cheap. However, the author loves it a lot though it had ended up ten years ago. Now, it is in the field full of soil and sun-flowers growing inside it. In her perspective, no more cars like this one are natural and environmental. She also loves the later cars but cannot compared with the first one.
Passport
The author had been to three different countries and met three kinds of drivers such as Indian drivers, Paris drivers and Mexico drivers. In India, the driver was greedy to wait them and ask them for the large amount of money. In Paris, the taxi driver is honest and integrity because he send their lost things back. As for Mexico, it is a dangerous city and many people are robbed by taxi drivers so people there don’t dare to take a taxi.
Sometimes, you become the driver of someone else and will get used to it. And car is a private space which you can do something you like, just follow your feelings.
The same bed
The taxi driver asked the author a couple of questions like what she is going and what she thinks about now. She said that she is not sleep last night and read all of the guest books. And she found that on the bed of she slept someone got spider bites on it. So she can’t fall asleep anymore.
Monsters
The author in the Scotland met a taxi driver who is honest and talked a lot with the author. They talked about the people in Scotland are more relax and live interesting because they don’t hope the political office wound do something good. On the other hand, American people will cynical about politics because they think they have power to control the politics. For instance, they can vote for a better person. Author felt they have a nice talk and really enjoyed it.
Brown
The author happened to met a taxi driver who is a white man but he is like to become tanned because tanned will make you look healthier than pale. The author reminded that she has read a book which writes about people look down to darker color people, but they want tanned now and tanned will cost you a lot of money.
Rollentina
Everything belongs to the one who experienced it so the author feel central human experience when she riding in a taxi, passing in a car. Once she is driving some persons to the airport, she drived very slowly because it is snowy and she is not a good driver. However, people in the backseat didn’t realize it and keep talking. The author learned that she can listen and watch when you felt tongue-tied.
Test Case
When author take a taxi in Delhi, road closed made a desperate traffic jam. They were waited there for few hours, the taxi driver asked the author if she mind he take the new fly-over？She answered that of course not. So they were flying over everyone else, but the author felt strange why other people don’t take this way. The taxi driver said that because no one trusted this yet and they were watched them to see what happens. So the author and the taxi driver were the test case.
Mouth of the rat
When author spent her time in Florida, she didn’t see her taxi driver at the airport but another taxi driver would like to take her with another passages. It was an over-sized white limousine and she try to talk with them to break the silence. The talked about journey, occupation and houses. The author found they are nice gradually and the taxi said they were tried to act normal.
Sightseeing
One day, in the morning of San Antonio, the author saw a man with a cat in the parking lot of the Sanitary Tortilla Factory. The cat has an observant gaze which made the author interested into this two. The cat likes to take a ride in the car everyday to see different places with this man.
Tips
The author has to visit the international teachers’ conference, but the taxi was still not come after she has waited for forty minutes. She had to take a taxi with another woman together and share cost. On their way to the destination, the taxi driver keeps talking about everything along the road and these two ladies response him in turn.
Lending library
One taxi driver had waited for author for three hours because she’s plane is late. The taxi driver said a book saved his tonight for waited so long, then the driver and author started to chat about favorite books. The driver’s favorite author is the author’s friend which made the driver felt happy and willing talk to the author more. This driver is encouraged by a book called “snow leopard” to visit many places and the author appreciate his life very much. At the last, the driver insists on lending the author a book to read.
No room at the inn
The author arrived at the hotel in the very late evening and she book a room in advance, but the staff in the hotel give this room to everyone else and let author to go to another town to find a hotel. However, they gave a wrong direction to them and made them lost. They went to a hotel called “lorenzo’s Italt”, the manager of this hotel treat them well to give a lot of food and correct directions to the destination though not provide a room for author. Finally, they found the right hotel and the author called the origin hotel ask them to pay all of this extra cost.
Bruce
Author talked about Bruce with a taxi driver once, and the taxi driver is a big fan of him unexpected. After that, the driver told author many star’s really character in daily life. Compared with Bruce, the other star are not nice to people though they have everything. So they think Bruce is a true star.
Fun with grandpa
Author dialed her father to speak to her child and found her father is driving now and her child is in the back of the truck. The author thought it is against the law to stay at there and driving with one hand. She started to teach them a lesson, but her child doesn’t listen to her and talked about the great time with grandpa.
Free day in Toronto
When the author took her son to attend a children’s literature conference at a university of Toronto, she felt uncomfortable, so she go to hospital. At the hospital, she met several kinds of patients even met a friend who called Jennifer and worked there. Author felt that her son is grow up and love her so much through his responses to her sick. She also found that interesting story which is Dave Egger hitchhikers in Cuba and met a lot of people. Thus, she wanted to do it, too.
Criminal handbags
When the author takes a taxi in New York, she met a taxi driver who was counterfeit bags before and got into jail once. He said that this is an easy and quick way to make money in New York and he want to go back to Egypt after he earned enough money. The author persuades him that it is a terrible way to make money and he can make money in legal way such as be a model of a magazine. However, he didn’t listen to it. At last, he mistaken the author to a wrong place but it is not a counterfeit.
Too many cars
This chapter recorded that cars crushed into her parents’ house two times. One time is the car crushed into her father’s office and waked her father and mother up. The driver was drunk and driven through the voltage pole in all directions so he got fined for driving while intoxicated. The author’s parents got a new office window for refuse to his dinner. As for the second time, the driver was also drunk and drove his car into the house’s yard and left CDs there. The author thought she should return it back so she drove to see him and gave it back. The diver was so surprised that she didn’t punch him or give a lecture to him, but return the CDs and said something softly to him instead. However, when they drove back, their car broken down and her father didn’t want to say anything about it because he hates this traffic and didn’t want to return it, too.
After all that walking
Driving is a dangerous thing which can caused death, especially when people take a taxi, it is means to give a life to a stranger’s hand. But we shouldn’t worry about too much because we can’t go to many places or do many things if we care about too much.
Gifts
The author met two drivers who were from Middle East which have bad relations with America and lead to people from that places live in a miserable life. The first driver was from Lebanon and he loved the Arab show very much and can stand to cry. The author gave a free ticket to him which made him very moving and refused to take money from the author. And the second driver was from Jerusalem and never received the money from me which made me felt strange. At the last, he said that he thought the author seemed familiar and he thought about his families in hometown who were lived a terrible life now.
Roses
It is a story about talked about flower with a taxi driver in Washington and compares the number of roses owned. In author’s perspectives, planting flowers is beauty and not a matter. When the author praise the tulips were keeping their heads on even in heavy wind, the driver said that it is just nature which explains everything.
Backseat
The author’s aunties died when author’s boy was only three-year-old and it is difficult to explain the fact to child. After the little boy asked for many times, she said that they were in heaven which has peace and flowers. The author and her son felt depressed about it. However, a little scrap of paper was blown up and came back which is interesting and amazing, as if the aunties were still with us.